By Alec Price, NHS worker, UNISON member
I have a lot of feelings about the governments NHS pay offer, which I listened to as I drove to work. But here is some thoughts on what it’s about and what we should do. If you agree, crack on and put it into action.
The government are provoking a strike in the NHS with their contemptible offer of a real terms pay cut. NHS workers were the human buffer zone between the ruling classes’ early ending of lockdown, including re-opening the schools, which laid the ground for the eighty thousand killer second wave of COVID-19.
These were deaths whose underlying cause was the greed of big business. The ruling class wanted to re-start their business of making a profit from robbing the vast majority of the wealth creating by their own workers. The social mixing that caused led to the virus spreading, and the virus mutating to worse forms.
Many people felt economically and socially compelled to break the lockdown at various points. This is primarily due to the lack of adequate provision of economic security and service provision that could have been delivered, but wasn’t, by the government.
Beyond this, some people had less excuse, but it’s a fact that any individual selfish, idiotic or naive views or behaviour can only stand in awe of the scale of destruction unleashed by the political decision to open schools and businesses in the summer. It was a death sentence in profit-seeking form – faced up to by NHS workers.
NHS workers went into the pandemic with 100,000 vacancies and a decade of pay restraint. Around 1,000 NHS workers died – huge numbers of staff caught the virus and are still suffering its effects. We witnessed the needless deaths of people who had so much still to give to life.
NHS workers are mentally and physically fatigued, many people have lost their jobs, and Labour have a useless leader, who sees his job to stop socialism, rather than stop the Tories.
In that situation, the Tories have gambled that they can lie through their position in the media, divide public opinion and rely a “learned helplessness” to see it through. If they can give “heroes” a real term pay cut then they can do it to anyone.
However, they have picked the wrong fight. Grassroots NHS workers put out the demand for a 15% pay increase in the summer with demonstrations across the country. This forced the unions to adopt the demand in full (GMB, UNITE) and even the former no-strike union, the Royal college of Nurses, is demanding a 12.5% pay rise and is setting up a strike fund.
Only UNISON is demanding less, but still more than the government’s offer. If Paul Holmes had won just a few more votes in the general secretary election, then even this would have changed, and with upcoming UNISON NEC elections and his high vote, it may still do.
No NHS worker I know supports the government’s offer, and some of them vote Tory. Most of the public don’t support this offer. Even the pathetic Labour leadership have quickly remembered the words to oppose the government and give voice to the genuine thoughts of many NHS workers, repeating the “kick in the teeth” line.
The government are throwing down the gauntlet to attack all workers and privatise our NHS. That is why they offer only 1%. Decent wages are not good for big business profits.
If the ruling class thinks, the fatigue, the historic lack of action and their control of the media and the leadership of the Labour Party will scare NHS workers from taking action they need to consider this:
You don’t stare death in the face and fear Matt Hancock.
All NHS workers should:
1) Join a union
2) Talk to your workmates and get them to join the union
3) Contact the union and demand they back a 15% pay rise – no strings attached – and they build a mass campaign to achieve it, including a national demo and preparations for strike action
4) If your local union won’t do this, organise your colleagues on a cross-union basis anyway. If unions see this happening they will soon get on board.
All other workers should:
1) Join a union
2) Get your union to back the NHS pay demands in solidarity – this is best done by also putting in the demands for your own work place and taking action for it. Don’t let any bureaucratic inertia from the officialdom put you off – they don’t do the work, you do.
3) vote for solid socialists at all levels of the union – in UNISON that means “The Members Team”, backed by Paul Holmes.
*The NHS had your back during the pandemic and if you take action over your bad pay deal/work conditions I’ll have yours as well. United we stand.
*You don’t have to pay for wage rises through increasing tax on other workers. The banks continued to make billions – big corporations avoiding and evaded billions in tax and the billionaires could pay every penny and still be billionaires.
All Labour Party members should:
1) Put motions for the party to back a mass campaign for a 15% pay rise for the NHS. The number is specific. Rosena Allin-Khan (a right wing Labour MP) was on the BBC and refused to put a figure other than “above the cost of living” which is projected to be 1.4%! That means Labour could support a 1.5% pay rise, not much better than the government’s 1% offer.
2) No-confidence any public representative refusing to back the NHS workers’ pay claim.
All NHS supporters should:
Promote a full programme to re-build the NHS, based around and supported by promoting the mass action needed for change:
1) MASS STAFF RECRUITMENT
*Mass recruitment to the NHS – your country and your class are best served by signing up to serve in the NHS.
*Mass health occupation training programmes delivered with no fees and instead based around a grant at least equivalent to a living wage.
2) TO ATTRACT THE STAFF NEEDED
*Minimum immediate 15% pay increase for ALL NHS staff as a step towards a doubling of NHS wages.
*A final salary pensions at 60.
3) Progressive reduction of the full-time working week to 25 hours/week, with no loss of pay and no reduction in staffing. Having more staff working less hours allows staffing capacity to rapidly rise at times of crisis without causing mass mental health issues, or “Nightingale” hospitals that are created but not able to be staffed. It will save lives.
3) PUBLIC OWNERSHIP
Publicly owned, accountable and efficient healthcare management
*Requisition private healthcare. Compensation for those with a just cause, and with proven need only. Put in the resources the NHS needs to reduce waiting lists built up during the pandemic, minus the profiteering.
*End the marketisation of the NHS – we are one NHS, not a million little foundation trust pieces or CCGs for middle class health empire builders, competing against each other.
*Cut “management consultants” and pro-profiteers from the running of healthcare. Workers and professionals to elect representatives onto the management boards, to sit alongside democratically-elected local government and patient interest representatives.
*Pharmaceuticals, dentistry, opticians, social care and public health are all apart of health care. They should be publicly-owned and integrated, free at the point of use.
*Mass investment into healthcare provision, technological advancement and medical innovation.
4) SOCIALISM
– Means an economy based on the social and environmental needs of the many, not private profiteering of the greedy few.
We won’t fully and permanently achieve the heath service we need without socialism. There is no alternative to workers democratically owning and controlling the commanding heights of the economy, so that decisions can be best made to plan to meet our needs and ensure a free and secure life for all.
The capitalist class are incapable of doing this, due to their pursuit of private profit, regardless of consequence to anything else. They cannot continue to run the economy and consequently shape our lives. Their capitalist system is up.
